This sounds like the beginning of a bad sci-fi movie… But it's a true story!

It came from the deep: a viscous black gunk oozing from the rudder shaft of a ship. At the end of August 2024, the crew of the Great Lakes research vessel R/V Blue Heron, first spotted the substance when the boat was brought to a Cleveland shipyard for propeller repairs. From the outset, no one was sure what to make of it, according to Doug Ricketts, Marine Superintendent at the University of Minnesota Duluth, Large Lakes Observatory.

The muck looked like thick grease or oil, but the rudder shaft wasn’t supposed to be lubricated by anything more than lake water. Instead of a strong petroleum odor, the goop had a metallic smell. It also didn’t leave a sheen on water, nor burn up in a blowtorch flame, during informal tests conducted by Blue Heron Captain Rual Lee. So, what was it?  

On the quest for answers, Ricketts brought a paper coffee cup half-filled with the mystery goop (labeled “ship goo” in haphazard marker strokes) to university scientists. Laboratory analysis has prompted more questions than clarity, but the initial assessment of the “ship goo” yielded at least one startling discovery. The mysterious tar-like material contained previously unidentified forms of life. 

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